I sat down with Dr. Jeffrey B. Wells, DC, principal chiropractic physician at Wells Family Chiropractic in Lindenhurst Illinois, who specializes in chiropractic care for drug-free pain relief, injury rehabilitation and wellness care in, to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about chiropractic care. Dr. Jeff Wells, an expert in knee pain, shoulder pain and spinal adjustments, has been practicing in Lindenhurst for over a decade.
BIM: I appreciate you spending the time with our readers today. So let’s just jump right into it. Tell us a little about your business and the types of patients that you’re helping.
Dr. Wells: I’ve been in business for longer than I can imagine it. I graduated in 1997 from the National University of Health Science in Lombard Illinois. I did my pre-med at the University of Utah and I graduated in 1997 and I’ve been in private practice ever since I opened up this practice in the Northern Illinois area some time ago and been helping patients here in Lindenhurst and the surrounding suburbs. I specialize in a variety of things but have really focused in on sports and sports injury, family chiropractic & the spine. So we treat all kinds of patients. We’ve had professional athletes in my office, some Chicago Bears players. We work with triathlon and ironmen and all those kind of things. But then we work with entire families as well as the average Joe. So it’s really a broad spectrum of patients that I see.
BIM: It’s fantastic. So when you treat somebody who comes in with a sport injury whether it’s an NFL pro player or like you say your average Joe, what are the kinds of things that you’re seeing happening and how do you see them responding to your treatments.
Dr. Wells: That’s a great question. They all respond very well. We obviously treat back conditions in our office. Often times when you think of a Chiropractor you think of back and that’s true we do treat a lot of spinal conditions in our office. But what a lot of people don’t realize is that spinal conditions can actually cause other conditions such as knee pain and other ailments. So I get a lot of athletes who come in here with a knee problem that didn’t know that there was a spinal component that was actually aggravating that knee. So we see that oftentimes also in the elderly population. People with chronic knee pain can have a problem in the lower lumbar spine that’s actually causing an issue with the nerves that go to the knee. And so the knee is not stable and the muscles surrounding it to protect the knee are weak. And so we’re able to find those things and we do a lot of that in this office.
BIM: It’s amazing how intricate the body is and how so many things are interconnected together where one thing really can affect the other parts of the body just like a chain reaction. So what led you into the field, what got you started as a chiropractor?
Dr. Wells: I was actually an athlete myself and I was in the martial arts for my whole life. I was actually testing for my black belt in karate. I was at the University of Utah and competing and actually hurt myself in a match. I couldn’t turn my neck because I injured my cervical spine. And so my buddy, his name was Terry, said hey you got to come visit my chiropractor and I’m like “What’s a chiropractor”. I remember there was a chiropractor in our town growing up in Ohio but all I knew was he had an office. I had never stopped by and didn’t really even know what that word meant. So I gave it a shot. I walked in and the chiropractor sat me down and went through a thorough consultation and examination just like you would expect any doctor to do. He then showed me my problem and started correcting it. And within just a few visits I felt dramatic relief. But what came about a few months later is that I had a pretty serious illness that I grew up with which was asthma. It was a pretty extreme asthma and sports induced asthma, to the extent that it put me on the sidelines a lot. I literally would miss school for two to three weeks at a time and would have to be rushed to the hospital at times when I was longer.
I was on some pretty serious medications and things to treat that even into my 20’s when I hurt my neck in martial arts. And those medications had a side effects, one of which was it kept me up at night with frequent urination. I would run into the bathroom and I didn’t get to sleep. So long story short, my asthma improved tremendously and I couldn’t understand the connection until later when this doctor sat me down again. He had a workshop and he would explain to me the neurological connection between the spine and the nervous system and the organs of the body. That changed the course of my life because I was going into medicine at the time but I started to look at this other alternative healthcare and take it seriously because it had seriously impacted my health. So that’s how I got into Chiropractic medicine.
BIM: Wow, that’s a very powerful and personal story. You experienced something that was life changing and you turned it into your mission in life which is phenomenal. I always ask doctors and business owners and executives if there was someone who inspired them along the way. It sounds like this is the Chiropractic physician who actually inspired you to become a chiropractor yourself.
